Hujambo?

It feels like greetings form the basis of life here. Everywhere you go, everyone you meet – greetings! Just learning them requires a whole class of Kiswahili.

But I grew up with two cultures that don’t really greet people you don’t know. At least in North Van and on hiking trails in Canada, you would greet people you meet. In Hong Kong, don’t even think about it unless you want the whole bus to think you need to go to the hospital to get your head checked.

Over the years of living in Hong Kong and Vancouver, I’ve learnt the highly needed technique of avoiding eyes and staring into space on a very crowded bus. I’ve learnt to survey and enjoy my surroundings, but not have eye contact with anybody. Trust me, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Here, though, this is all crap. You’re supposed to look at random people on the street and greet them, especially since it’s a form of social insurance*. I still haven’t figured it out – who should you greet? It can’t possibly be everyone you see on the side of the street. The locals seem to only greet certain people, but I can’t see a pattern. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they don’t know each other.

It doesn’t help that people stare at me, everywhere, all the time. I’ve learnt to ignore the stares, and actually I feel quite comfortable most of the time, despite sometimes men making comments that start with “hey baby.” It makes it really hard for me to know if they are just staring or if they would like us to say hi.

If it’s one thing I’m having a hard time navigating, it’s this greeting culture. It literally drains me to walk from the house to the office sometimes because I’m always thinking who should I greet and not. It just feels so much better when I’m walking on a main street so there’re too many people, so I don’t have to greet them.

*The more you greet people, the more you become part of the community near where you live. If anything bad happens, people are more likely to help you. And of course, vice versa.